eZ adds Recommendation Engine

Tuesday 09 August 2011

With the acquisition of YOOCHOOSE GmbH, eZ Systems AS can now deliver personalized content through a new visitor recommendation engine.

eZ Systems AS, the award winning Open Source Web Content Management Platform provider, today announced the acquisition of YOOCHOOSE GmbH. The YOOCHOOSE product will be integrated into eZ Systems AS’ product portfolio and offered under the name eZ Recommender Engine as part of the eZ Publish Enterprise Edition Platform.

The eZ Recommender Engine from YOOCHOOSE represents an opportunity to create a dynamic and unique experience each time a customer visits a website, collecting data and creating real-time updates to the user profile. When a customer visits a website from any device, personalized recommendations are automatically delivered based on his or her unique interests.

The eZ Recommender Engine plays a crucial role helping marketers proactively engage visitors, increase the length of online sessions and promote user retention, turning each discovery or shopping event into a unique experience as news, images, videos, products and events are recommended in real-time according to the users’ individual consumption and behaviour.

Successful companies choose the eZ Recommender Engine to enhance site stickiness, drive repeat visitors, boost advertising revenue and increase e-commerce sales. E-commerce platforms are leading by example choosing the eZ Recommender Engine and increasing the performance of their business. The personalized approach ensures that users can better navigate the ever-growing product catalogs, providing end customers with individual product recommendations, helping them to find desired items more quickly.

“The acquisition of YOOCHOOSE was very strategic for eZ Systems,” says Gabriele Viebach, CEO of eZ Systems AS. "Our customers are required to address the end visitor with a more sophisticated experience and the addition of YOOCHOOSE and the recommendation technology is an important enhancement for the eZ Systems platform to optimize on future market trends and fulfill these foreseen requirements.”

Improved customer retention and average order size by creating new purchase options

Increased advertising revenues by enhancing the usability and promotion of websites

Promoted upselling and cross-selling based on an individual’s online behaviour

“It is becoming more and more difficult for end users to find the right product among a sprawling abundance of offerings,” says Michael Friedmann, Chief Technology Officer of YOOCHOOSE. “Our integration with eZ’s Platform allows marketing to control the entire Web experience from the content strategy to the recommendation of additional information that can optimize the end-user’s visit.”

Through this acquisition, eZ will continue to develop the YOOCHOOSE technology and add the recommender engine to the eZ Publish Enterprise Edition roadmap. YOOCHOOSE base functionality comes today with eZ Publish Enterprise Edition 4.5 or as a stand-alone solution and the advanced (full) functionality is available in the eZ Market.